(This quilt has been so long in the making, and I'm so happy to be finished with it, that this post is just going to whip through everything superfast!) Like a lot of people, I started to appreciate Tula Pink's Neptune line after it became OOP/HTF. And I got really excited when Salt water was announced, because that meant I wouldn't have to pay a fortune to collect Neptune anymore! I find Tula to be a master of swirly, decorative designs and optical illusions, but I find it hard to work the fabrics into the rest of my stash. So when I saw her free Anchors Away quilt pattern, it was a no-brainer that I needed to make it for Dylan's birthday this year. (He occasionally checks my photostream, so the few in-progress photos I had taken were made private. I'll change their privacy settings momentarily!) I got my fabrics from Pattern Crush and Mad About Patchwork. (Pattern Crush had just opened and Salt Water was the first line she stocked -- and wow, has her shop ever grown!) I mused with .jwc. about whether fusible interfacing would sped the process up, but ultimately I was just too lazy to go to the store to get some. The sewing wasn't too difficult; just another one of those things where you have to go slowly. And it seems like I befriended Gayle at the perfect time, because I was completely inspired by her Iced Clams quilt for my quilt back! (Uh, but I stupidly cut the fabrics the wrong way, so my clamshells face upward...) But wow, the main event of this quilt has got to be the long-arm quilting, which was done by Tammy Murphy of Colour Me Quilted in Uxbridge, Ontario. She's going to be the first and only long-armer I'll ever use:) I just found her on Google, and I feel so lucky that I did -- every stitch is perfect (make sure to look at the binding shot, where you can see how dense the quilting is in some places!). We decided to do similar fills to Angela Walters' amazing job on the original quilt, and also added clusters of seashells on the top left and bottom right corners. I feel so, so proud of this quilt and how polished it looks and how much impact it has, but I know it would be nothing without Tammy's work. I can't wait to bring something to her again! Oh, and you can view Tammy's photos of the quilt here. Gifted last night, went over great:)
